有效管理信用价值意味着管理风险，共同努力识别和管理可能影响公用事业公司未来财务绩效的风险因素。在制定风险管理的总体框架并讨论一些风险管理策略之前，先看看1）公用事业公司的潜在债权人和投资者如何感知风险，以及2）水公用事业行业财务风险的主要来源是什么。

Managing credit-worthiness effectively means managing risk-making a concerted effort to identify and manage risk factors which have the potential of affecting the utility's future financial performance. Before developing an overall framework for risk management and discussing some risk management's strategies, it is helpful to first take a look at 1) how risk is perceived by a utility's potential creditors and investors, and 2) what the major sources of financial risk are in the water utility industry.